The 12 Misconceptions About Ninja & Ninjutsu

The popular representation of ninja has been vastly wrong, as in this example.

   Most people are probably unaware of most realities about Shinobi (a.k.a Ninja) and ninjutsu, probably because this art is so secretive and then distorted. By the popular portrayal, a ninja is shown as a creepy, heartless, shadowy figure that has no other purpose in life other than killing people for money or revenge, as mercilessly as could be. Some see ninjas as masters of several martial arts and call ninjutsu 'the mother of martial arts'. Using these misconceptions, many people are being mislead by self-proclaiming (fake) masters of ninjutsu, probably for private gains. This is a serious issue and hence in this post we point out those 12 greatest misconceptions which are commonly found against Ninja and then to defeat those claims or solve the misconceptions through evidence from history and the true teachings of the Shinobi.

Samurai vs Ninja

The Dragon Spirits

   This post is mostly about the relationship between the Samurai and Ninja, the two famous types of warriors in the history. In it we will also compare the path/ways or methods of the two, usually called Bushido and Shinobido, using references from the the books of Shoninki -one of the three great treasures on the knowledge of Shinobi by Natori Masazumi (Sok, and Hagakure -the book of Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo. This post doesn't really discuss who is superior between Samurai and Ninja because that's a matter of situation.
   First let's give a short introduction of the two figures. Samurai, known more commonly in earlier Japan as Bushi or simply Bu, were the military officer class of warriors, known for their nobility, honor and bravery. They were strongly committed to their path of Samurai -Bushido which defined the basic principles of the way of samurai life. The spirit of a Bushi was like that of a pine tree -high, erect and strong, when it came to character. We can say that the spirit of a Samurai was like an Oni (demon) when it came to intention. They would get cut down rather than bend down before the will of an enemy, however they were readily available to submit their will before that of the person they were serving for. They were committed to their way of honor so much that they would commit seppuku (a ritual suicide) in case of a great loss rather than take the path of escape or imprisonment. Even if they were imprisoned during war or due to crime, the general path for them was to commit seppuku in order to release their soul from the strangles of worldly life.